Head of Finance - Regulated Payments Business

About the role

Bullfinch Recruitment is recruiting a Head of Finance for a regulated payments business based in Malta. This is the first senior finance hire, tasked with building the finance function from scratch and owning the financial narrative presented to the Board, the regulator, banking and scheme partners and shareholders. The role is CFO-designate, sitting on the senior management team alongside the Chief Risk Officer and the Head of Payments Operations, and working closely with the Non-Executive Directors. The candidate is expected to grow into the Chief Financial Officer title as the business scales.

Key responsibilities

• Own the accounting function end to end: general ledger, month-end close, management accounts and IFRS statutory statements, plus finance policies, controls and delegated authorities.
• Manage the relationship with external auditors and deliver a clean first statutory audit.
• Select and implement finance systems (accounting platform, expense management, payroll interface and reporting) integrated with the payments platform.
• Prepare and submit financial regulatory returns to the MFSA on time, and monitor own funds and capital adequacy with headroom analysis for the Board.
• Own the safeguarding framework for customer funds, including daily and intraday reconciliation, and manage liquidity, settlement funding, corporate banking relationships and FX exposure.
• Own the financial model, annual budget and rolling forecast, and build unit economics such as revenue per transaction, interchange and scheme costs, take rate and contribution margin.
• Support commercial finance on merchant pricing, partner economics, scheme sponsorship and new products, and provide management information for the Board and shareholders.
• Manage Maltese corporate tax and VAT, transfer pricing and corporate governance matters, and prepare Board and Audit Committee materials.

Required profile

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CPA or equivalent).
• Senior finance experience in a regulated financial services business (payment institution, e-money institution, acquirer, PSP or comparable fintech).
• Direct, hands-on experience of safeguarding funds and settlement reconciliation in a payments environment.
• Demonstrated ownership of a statutory audit and IFRS financial statements.
• Based in Malta or able to relocate before starting; the role cannot be done remotely.
• Fluent written and spoken English, and able to meet the MFSA's fit-and-proper standards.

Required skills

• Knowledge of the payment institutions regulatory framework (PSD2, own funds and capital requirements, regulatory reporting).
• Strong financial modelling and analytical capability.
• Credibility and communication skills to present to a Board, regulator, auditor and banking partner.

Desirable: experience taking a payments or e-money business through licensing, familiarity with card scheme settlement and acquirer economics, experience building a finance team from the first hire, Maltese tax and VAT knowledge, and exposure to merchant-of-record structures or higher-risk merchant verticals.